Hi all, new guy to the forum, I found it by accident looking for info on the motorhome we're about to buy. I've been a regular for many years on some boating forums, particularly BoatingABC.com. As the economy has been tanking recently, so has the action on the boat forums. I was surprised to see how many "today" posts RV2 has, pretty busy place, sounds like a fun bunch!

As I just mentioned, we're about to buy a new (to us) motorhome, a 2000 40' Allegro Bus. The wife & I have been RV'ers for years. Most of our RVing is just local camping or spending long weekends or a vacation at Lake Powell or Flaming Gorge. I've been thru a '78 21' Delta, an '82 19' Kit Companion trailer, a '78 28' CruiseAir, a '92 27' Winnebago Brave, an '04 36' Challenger 3-slide 5th wheel, and our current oldie but goodie '89 31' CruiseAir. And we currently own 3 boats, an '07 17' Bayliner bowrider, a '95 32' Sun Tracker Party Cruiser, and our pride & joy, a 1988 53' Skipperliner houseboat that we live on during the summer. We enjoy the houseboat so much, it's been cramping our RVing style!

"PlayItForwrd" (minus one letter that wouldn't fit!) is the new name we chose for our Skipperliner, I thought it would be a good board name here-- It conveys what we're doing with our lives... 15 years ago we talked often about buying a houseboat and a nice RV after we retire. But about 5 years ago as we reached our 50's, we watched our parents in "retirement", if you can call it that. Too tired to leave the house and enjoy life. It dawned on us that maybe we should think about trying to enjoy life now. We sold our home of many years, found the right houseboat, and brought it to Utah Lake. I'm self employed, still have to work every day, but I'm only 27 miles away, most of it freeway. No problem! Our 5th season is coming up, hard to believe. But I know this, we're grateful we didn't wait until we're in our 70's to do this!

BUT- we haven't been RVing much the past 4 years, and we're anxious to do more this year. We've endured some family and business issues the past year, but biz good lately and everything else is under control. Since we're playing it forward, we decided to buy ourselves what will probably be our LAST motorhome!

I'm pretty much a motorhead, I know my way around engines & such pretty well, always been my own mechanic for the most part. but I've never had a diesel vehicle, so this is going to be new, and fun --hopefully! I've been trying to find info online about the Cummins and Allison tranny, the Freightliner chassis, etc, but I can't find much on a 2000 model. Any tips or advice appreciated!

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Welcome aboard PlayItForwrd, novels are good, now we don't have to pry the info about you, out of you bit by bit .
Congrats on the new Allegro Bus, nice rigs I like them don't forget to post some pictures of it soon. I'm sure you'll find this forum the friendliest on the net, at least most of us here do.

And for a great week of fun food and fellowship, consider the National Rally to be held in Williams AZ this summer. Check out details near the top of the forum where you can sign up, pay up, plan a couple dishes, and show up. A great group to get together with.

Find out and post the size Cummins is on the coach. The Transmission is probably a 6 speed but ask the seller to be sure. Both the engine and transmission should have been properly maintained (you already know this) and records should be provided. As long as the engine is of sufficient hp rating (say 350 or better) for the weight of the coach, you should be fine. The 2000 Allegros were built like tanks by a quality builder.

We're still in the obtaining financing stages at this point, which is proving to be a pain in the butt. My bank will finance, but their rates suck. I'm self employed, and my name is on some business loans, in addition to some personal loans. But we can't get the lenders with good rates to either (a) differentiate between loans my business is responsible for and loans I'M responsible for, or (b) factor in my business income rather than personal income, since they're they're factoring in business debt...

I haven't had a chance to find out what manuals, records and other paperwork exist yet. We're buying from a dealer, which doubles as a semi truck dealership. The majority of motorhomes they're selling are bank repo's, most from failed RV dealers. You can tell the rigs that were repo'd from owners, it's amazing what people will do when they know the bank is coming. The people who work here are nice, seem to be honest, but many of them know less about motorhomes than I do (and they even admit it).

I know the Cummins is the ISC, the dealer lists it at 325hp, but the 'oldest' info I can find on this chassis is 2002, which lists it at 330hp... Did they make a power change after 2000?

Pretty sure the tranny is the Allison 6 speed, it has the touchpad shifter--
--what I'm not familiar with is the "mode" button and "economy" feature. I did find a little info on the Allison website, but mostly "ad lingo", not so much "user info". Any explanations on what the different modes "do" and what I can expect would be great!

More info on the rig itself, it's in excellent condition, 36k miles. The interior almost looks as if they drove the thing around the country a few times but stayed in hotels. the 2400 hours on the genny say that's not true, but the cabinetry looks like it's never been touched. It's obvious it was well taken care of, and that's important to me.

Thanks for the photos, it's beautiful, I'm drooling. I did a Google search for the 2000. Now either a lot of different engines were available or the dealers have no idea of what they're selling. There was a few at 300 hp, two at 330 hp and one at 350 hp so I guess I'm none the wiser after that.
Congrats, a beautiful rig

Since you have the Cummins ISC, it is probably the 330 hp and 6 speed Alison tranny. The mode button will put it in to the economy mode and change the shift rpm points in the tranny. In economy mode the tranny will upshift quicker and downshift slower than in the normal mode. On flat ground it is good.
Any other questions?